Now it’s my turn… to take this theme and see how far I can run with it before immunology wrests my hands away from the keyboard (or at least away from the BoFN).

Not too shabby, tabby!

We start off with Niamh Gearney, who undertook a massive online search to find her doppelganger, and she successfully found it in Karen Branigan, who shares almost all of Niamh’s traits except for the amazingly awesome and unique name. Sounds like a fun search! I wonder who my doppelganger is?!? Back in my welterweight days, peeps used to say I looked like a Smallville-era Tom Welling.

Moving on to business and politics, I think you’ve gotta consider Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and Cisco CTO Padmarsree Warrior “twinsies” because they both have impressive names that seem well-equipped to their chosen fields. A politician named Goodluck, and a businessman named Warrior? Seems like nominative determinism to me! It appears President Jonathan (whose wife is named Patience Jonathan) will be handing over the presidency in late May, and Padmarsree Warrior made the news for his habit of spending 24 hours away from technology each weekend. Is that what being a “weekend Warrior” means? I’ve been doing it wrong all these years!

In Arts and Culture news, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and his brother Skippy Kamakawiwo’ole aren’t exactly twinsies, but they are related, and the late “Somewhere over the Rainbow” singer was recently profiled by NPR for being the voice of Hawai’i.

In more brother-y news, it recently emerged that Matt Lachappa, who had an on-field heart attack while warming up for a minor league game 20 years ago and ended up wheelchair-bound, has been continuously signed to a minor league contract for 20 years by the San Diego Padres every year so he can get health insurance. This news was confirmed by none other than Matt’s brother, Eagle Lachappa!

Hey! Hey! Hey!
It’s spelled “Kamakawiwo’ole.” Means “the fearless eye, the bold face.” He was the third child of Evangeline Keale Kamakawiwo’ole, a Hawaiian woman born on Ni’ihau, and Henry “Tiny” Kaleialoha Naniwa Kamakawiwo’ole, a part-Hawaiian born on O’ahu.

You’re the one who’s not Marquis, I take it. 🙂 Patience–what a difficult name to live up to! I have ZERO right now. I would cut a person in an alley; it’s been a tough day dealing with doctors! I need a Goodluck Jonathan right now. So you’re telling me the San Diego Padres are just doing that to be nice? Surely it must be part of some deal they worked out with him. That’s a lot of money in health insurance. And yikes! That black and gold jacuzzi of Tyson’s–what a remnant of 80s excess. All that opulence, just sitting around rotting. Who is paying county taxes on that thing?

I wouldn’t mess with Evnik. I might suggest a ponytail holder, but I wouldn’t take a harsh tone with her.

Excellent deductive reasoning, my dear Watson! The funny thing is in that gym, I’m often the closest person to being his size, so I end up sparring him. I’d love to know what it’s like to spar your actual doppelganger… wouldn’t that be cool?!?

I’m sorry you have little patience right now… hopefully your day has improved, and you’ve found your Goodluck Jonathan and patience!

I am intrigued by everything about that weird rotting mansion. It’s just amazing that it’s not being used for… something? It seems like there’s something they could do with it!

Think how many homeless people would be like, “I’ll sleep on this floor, outside of the snow, thank you very much.” I’ll moonwalk on this Italian marble. And that would be pretty cool to spar your doppelganger. One of you might end up looking like Mickey Roarke, though.

Oh, and I think the Padres are doing it just to be nice. It’s a pretty kind organization, all in all. Unless you’re a lifelong fan like Rob, who saw them make it to the World Series in 1998, but has watched them struggle repeatedly since.

I was just commenting to Mark that it’s been fun to see the contributors mix things up around here. Like what you’ve done here. Will hop back on the train eventually, but now the bar has been set that much higher 0-: Skippy, huh?

Always fun to try to mix it up. It might be what I enjoy about this blog the most… we have just enough structure that there’s some unifying theme, but just enough lack of structure that fun experimental stuff is rewarded. I haven’t had a ton of time lately to try out some of my wackier ideas, but I enjoyed writing this as Twinsies week… funny thing is that the inspiration didn’t strike until about 5 minutes before I started writing this post.

Skippy is a great name, but I think people can much more easily get away with it when they weigh several hundred pounds. Sadly, Skippy died of an obesity-related heart attack at age 28, which is very… yikes! it’s my age… and I’ll be 29 in less than 3 months time! Better work to stay in shape!

P.S. Speaking of staying in shape, did you see that video of me sparring (linked at the part where I mentioned weekend warriors)? I’m super pleased with it because I held my own against a HUGE guy, and it was caught on video!

My doppel is Al Borland, co-host with Tim Taylor on ‘Tool Time’ in the old ‘Home Improvement’ sitcom, King Dave. Back then I wanted to send in my resume and a photo and try to land a recurring role as Al’s brother but chickened out.